How to Tell Posy
by iheartligers
Summary: Posy has no clue what her parents went through, and is curious about it. When someting big happens in her life, she finally learns about the horrors her parents survived in the arena. T because, I'm paranoid.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: hey guys so I just finished Mocking Jay and everyone lied! They said that the series ended terribly, but you know the ending we might have wanted a little bit more details, but that's what lovely sites like fanfiction are for, to unleash our imagination (pun most certainly intended) I personally hate puns, don't you guys? It's right up there with driving through mountains, cool but annoying. (My ears keep popping and I have to keep yawning to hear right! *so exasperating!* :P) I like Florida, it's flat. They're just sooo, lame! Puns that is, for all of you who got lost in my rants. O.k. well on with my first Hunger Games Story!

Time: Fourteen years after epilogue of Mocking Jay.

It had been one of those slow, boring days. It was raining, so I couldn't go out hunting. It was a real shame; I couldn't use the beautiful new bow I got last week. It was days like this that mom and I would just sit and catch up, but she was having severe headaches today. It was also frustrating, since I had no one to talk to about my current "boy problem" as Haymitch once called it. I couldn't take it to my dad, and certainly not while he was down at the bakery with my brother, I wouldn't be able to live that one down with the cause of my problems there. That and me being banned after nearly burning it down last time I went to help… So I needed a plan to get Tyler and Fin out of there so I could talk to dad about an even more important question. I left a note on my mom's door saying that I went to the bakery to get some more bread. That wouldn't fool her on a normal day, dad always kept us stocked up, but when she had her headaches, I could get away with almost anything. It would be a tougher time convincing Tyler to leave, and for Fin to let me in. I grabbed my jacket out of the closet, and pulled on my boots. I opened and closed the door as silently as I could. The slightest noise could set mom off. After clearing the house I took off down the street. This was the same way that Fin and I took back home two days ago. It was after the Reaping Festival, to celebrate the end of the Hunger Games, on the day that the Reaping would have taken place if the capitol hadn't fallen, and if it weren't for my parent's votes. It was weird how my parents were in it but they never seemed to talk about it. I didn't even know when they were in it. They never talked about their past I only knew about people in this old book I found when I was six.

I had been playing in the office, a place forbidden to me with no reason why, so of course I played in there often. I pushed the chair that was under the desk over to the shelf and pulled out a really dusty book. It had pages filled with pictures of plants. I still don't get why they have it, but it bored me, so I slid it back into place. There was another book right next to it that I pulled out and immediately recognized my father's work. Beautiful, realistic pictures of people I have never seen before. I got down from the chair I was precariously perched on, and took the book with me. I settled underneath the desk, and just looked at the pictures, making out the little words, and trying to sound out the bigger ones, I was just learning how to read. The one that always stuck with me was a picture of a girl named Primrose. She looked like my mom, sort of. They both had the same bone structure, but this girl had blonde hair. I loved her name it was the same as those flowers that my mother loved so much. I was about to put the book back when I heard a gasp. My mom caught me putting the book back she walked over slowly as if in a dream, and took from gently, as if it could break at any second. She then started sobbing over it. I had never heard her cry before. My dad rushed in to comfort her. The sound of my mom crying broke my heart, and I don't know why. Dad was in their telling her it was o.k., so it would be right? Dad was never wrong. I just laid in my bed that night, unable to go to sleep, feeling terrible about mom until, after what seemed like forever. Dad came in to tuck me in. He came and sat on my bed like he does every night, and I crawled into his lap.

"Daddy?" I asked him.

"Yes, honey?" he replied, wrapping his arms around me.

"Is mommy going to be o.k.?"

"Yes, mommy's going to be fine." He said sighing, getting ready to stand up. I crawled off of his lap and laid down on my bed.

"Why did she cry?" I asked, close to tears myself.

"You know what?" he asked leaning down to kiss my forehead and pulling the comforter up over me.

"What?" I asked sniffling, watching him head to the door.

"We will explain everything when you're older." He turned off the lights

"Promise?" I asked, snuggling into the blanket, still sniffling.

"I promise," he answered, shutting the door.

So I would know soon enough right? If not I would ask as soon as I could. I took off down the road, the same one Fin took off down two nights ago. We were at the festival when one of the guys from our grade asked me to dance. On any other day, I might have even said yes, if it weren't for the smell of alcohol on his breath. Panicky I looked around, there was no one around who could help me. The guy took my hand and started dragging me away when Fin appeared out of nowhere.

"There you are." He said casually to me, totally ignoring the brute that was hauling me off.

"Hey Fin," I responded deciding, probably stupidly, to trust him and play along.

"Come on," he said, "you promised to dance to me." He said sounding whiny.

I rolled my eyes. He was certainly cutting it close, I should have been gone hours ago, before things really picked up, but I'm not known for my great sense of judgment. Now I was stuck with only Fin to help me, who isn't exactly known for being the greatest source of judgment either. This was hopeless.

"Come on," he tried, breaking me out of the other guy's grip, which wasn't too hard in his drunken stupor.

"Tease!" the brute called over his shoulder as he walked away to find another girl. Fin just laughed at this last comment made about me. I gave him a deserved kick to the shin.

"Oh, is that anyway to thank the gentleman that just saved you? " Fin had asked teasingly.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry! How can I ever make it up to you?" I asked mockingly right back.

He laughed before answering, "hmmm, I can think of more than one way…" that comment followed by a smirk that set me off. I gave him a hard and REALLY deserved kick to the shin this time.

"Owww! What was that for?" Fin demanded

"Having a dirty mind!" I replied, giving him a smirk of my own. His face broke out into a ridiculous grin. I hated how it made me smile in response. Fin was the son of my mom's best friend, so we had pretty much grown up together. We both learned to hunt and bake, and there is a reason he's still allowed in my dad's bakery, while I was not. My mom taught me and Fin how to hunt. I seemed to have developed my mom's skill, as well as both of my parent's arts. It was too bad, Fin was a good shot, but preferred to help out in the bakery, couldn't take the silence, which was just so, Fin.

"Can I walk you home?" he asked, almost sincerely and just a tad bit gentlemanly. ", a party like this is no place for an innocent girl like you." He scolded. Of course, I replied with a simple eye roll of annoyance.

"Seriously, can I?" he asked, I normally would have said no, but there was something compelling about his voice.

"Sure," I replied. He jokingly put his arm out, like a real gentleman would. Being his best friend, he took it.

"So, no girls killing each other to get a chance with the magnificent Fin?" I asked. I knew something was up because; the joking atmosphere was suddenly gone. He scowled at me.

"You know what I mean," I sighed, after getting no response from him. He untangled his arm out of mine.

"Look," he said, commanding my attention. "You know I'm not like that." He demanded

"I know." I said, stopping to face him.

"Are you sure?" he asked. Did I really believe he was like that? Of course not, if he was we wouldn't be best friends.

"Yes, Fin what is this about?" I asked getting nervous now. We started walking again, I remember being thankful that my house would be coming up in a few seconds.

"There's a girl… and she needs to know this," o.k. I'll play along.

"Oh, and why does this girl need to know?" I asked trying to sound casual.

"Because, if she knew this, than she wouldn't doubt how much I loved her." He replied simply, jamming his hands into his pockets. We climbed up the steps to my front porch, making it into what everyone calls "The Village"

"And who might this lucky girl be?" I asked with genuine curiosity. His eyes flashed, something I wish I didn't knew.

"God, Posy! I should have left you to tease the other guy instead!" his out lash stung, even the memory brought tears to my eyes. He huffed away, going across the street to his house. I turned opened the door, and slammed it shut.

So now, Fin has been avoiding me, and it's killing me. How is it my fault if I didn't want a relationship with someone I wasn't sure I liked, let alone loved? I finally got to district square, and was standing in front of the bakery. Mellark Bakery, as the sign read. I practically lived here. I peered inside the window, hoping not be noticed, but it was empty, so of course, I walked in to check it out.

"Be right with you!" called my dad from the back. Great, he could be back there. I gave him the signal, one he said mom and him had used for a long time, asking if the coast was clear. I was relieved when he repeated it right back. Where would I be without good ole dad? He came around to the counter after a minute.

"It's so weird with no one else here," I commented.

"It's the rain," he replied.

"Did Fin show up today?" I asked, a little too hopefully for comfort.

"No, why?" My dad asked in sudden alarm. Great, he was here.

"Did he ask about me?" I knew from the look on my dad's face that it was a lot more to it than that.

"He told me everything," my dad had replied.

"When?" I demanded. I wouldn't usually talk to him this way, but this was really important.

"Three days ago," now he was icing a cake to put on display.

"Wait… Three days ago?" Now I know why no one asked me what was wrong.

"He's a good kid Posy." He replied simply, and I knew I wouldn't get anything else out of him. So I decided to get what I really came here for.

"Dad?" I asked timidly, there must be a reason they never talked about this.

"yes…" he asked, not even looking up from the cake he was working on.

"How did you and mom meet?" I asked. This got his attention.

"We were in school together," he answered carefully.

"So how did you know you were in love with her?" I asked. He got a dreamy look in his eyes.

"I knew I loved your mom the second I heard her sing and everything held its breath to listen." Still not exactly what I wanted, but it was a start.

"Need anything else?" he asked laughing, holding up a bag, which I knew was filled with cheese buns.

"Thanks dad!" I called over my shoulder as I took the bag and headed out the door.

"Tell your mom I'll be home soon!" he called after me. I'd have a lot more to tell her if she was awake when I got back

A/N: hey guys, so this took me over three days, I almost puked trying to type while driving the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. If you're ever up there in northern Georgia, check out Fort Mountain it has an amazing view, and a cool story behind it. Well now I'm back in good ole flat Florida. It's too late to go to sleep, and too early to be awake, so yeah. Hope you guys like it. I'm proud of myself, almost 2,000 words of actual story, and about 4 and a half pages, I'm doing pretty good if you consider 4 chapters of my last story had close to 400 LOL! So please review and let me know if it was terrible or not. I just finished the last two books about two days ago, and have been reading Meg Cabot and Maximum Ride Manga ever since. Tell me if you like the names, and if you can guess the parents of everyone! If you have a problem with the ages, it works out in my mind and that's good enough for me so Thanks for reading! Please review!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hey guys, thanks so much to everyone to everyone that reviewed and favorited! (I like spazzed out for ten minutes after finding that one out LOL. It's slow figuring stuff like that out when your email is seriously retarded and won't let you login.) So yeah.

Teampeeta4ever~ love your penname XD

Jmint495~ love your Night Visit, great AU, you guys should really check it out

o.k. on with the story, I apologize for any retardedness coming from me, if you've read my ENTIRE profile, I think you would understand. O.K. here we go for reals now.

"Posy!" called out an all too familiar voice. Great, just what I needed.

"Hey! Slow Down!" he called out again. After knowing me his entire life, he should know I don't slow down for anyone, especially him. Too bad he can run faster than me. That's just the beginning of a LONG list of things that in can't stand about my little brother Tyler.

"What?" I shouted behind my back, not bothering to turn around and look at him. On a normal day, people would give us curious glances, even if this was a typical type of conversation for us. But, today at least, the square was totally abandoned. Population, two.

"I need to show you something," he said in a much lower voice than initially used, certainly much more serious.

"What?" I ask, not bothering to lower my voice any. I'm sure dad could hear us in the bakery.

"Shhhh!" I roll my eyes at this. "Dad can't know about this." he whispers again. I finally understand. I take his hands, and tap it twice with my index finger on my other hand. It was a secret code that we had made up long ago. That was the first time that Tyler can remember ever seeing dad cry. He was four, and I was six, practically seven. We were out, skipping through the meadow, I had always wanted to go into the woods. Why weren't we allowed, it seemed to be safe enough, mom went there almost every day. What could be so bad about it? Dad was pointing something in the distance out to Tyler that I didn't pay much attention to, so I snuck out and headed towards the woods. I had just made it to the tree line when I heard a slight buzzing noise, I looked up and there was a mass of grey hanging in a tree. It looked really ugly, but there was a shiny little bug crawling inside of it.

"Posy!" came the most panicked voice I have yet to hear. My dad came rushing in and he saw the nest right off. He froze, his eyes glazed over, becoming almost grey. It honestly scared me, more than any nightmare could.

"Daddy?" I asked quietly, almost too scared to breathe. He never responded.

"Dad?" I tried a little bit louder, still not getting any response, he just stared at the nest with the faraway look in his eyes. "Daddy!" I screamed. Tyler was right behind me now, whispering out to Dad the entire time. He looked at me for a second, with tears brimming in his eyes.

"They're dead." He stated, whispering at first.

"Dad?" I asked, back to a whispering, meek voice.

"They're dead," he now spoke in a normal voice, tears streaking down his face. "I watched them die, innocent kids, I watched them die!" he shouted. He had grabbed my wrist and was shaking me.

"Dad please!" I begged, he was scaring me, "Let me go, just let me go!" I wrenched myself away from him, and ran, as far as I could into the woods. I came to a group of rocks, hid between two of them, and curled up there, crying.

I didn't want a repeat of it. I hid in the woods all day until mom found me. She held me, and carried me home. She promised he would teach me how to hunt, how to simply be out in the woods. Tyler came in and slept in my bed with me, as I tried to explain what had happened to Dad.

"Posy, I'm scared," Tyler had sniffled.

"I know" I whispered, burying myself further into the blankets, I took his hand in the same gesture then as I did now.

I knew where Tyler was coming from, no matter how hard I try to bury the memory; it still comes up sometimes, often in my nightmares. I silently made my way into the forest, despite the light drizzle. Reaching the sanctuary, behind the tree line, I felt like I could finally breathe. No mom's headaches and no dad's outburst. And best of all no, Finn acting weird, and romantic towards me. I was still really confused by that one. Thankfully, Tyler shows up silently to the rocks, the same ones that I hid in on that day, to break me out of my thoughts. He went the other way, towards the house so dad wouldn't get suspicious. He carried a sack that more than likely once held flour.

He settled in silently, not saying a word to me as he reached in and pulled out a book, but not just any book, the same one that had caused mom to cry once she found me reading it. The one from so long ago.

"So," I ask, "what about it?" it felt wrong to read it, yet I still felt drawn to it.

"I found our grandparents." He stated, unusually silent. We had been wandering about them for a while, and last time we were out here, it was the topic of our conversation. Mom and Dad never talked about them, except for Grandma Everdeen, who always seems to be so busy. I knew Dad's parents were used to own the bakery, but he never talked about them when I asked, and for all I knew, dad was an only child. Tyler flipped open to a page that held a picture of a man that looked a lot like mom. I knew that this was Grandpa Everdeen.

"What happened to him?" I whispered timidly, honestly scared to ask. I don't know how I could act ignorant to the fact I knew something as important as this, especially around mom.

"Here, you read it Posy." Said Tyler, handing me the book. Six pages after the picture, it held stories and descriptions all about grandpa, the last one was how he died. A mining accident, not the war that we learn about in school, the one that mom always keeps home when there are lectures and guest speakers about it. He died before the war, almost thirty-five years ago. What I couldn't get over was a mining accident, I knew that District 12 was different before the war, but I didn't know just how different.

"What about Dad's parents?" I ask in such a quiet voice, I'm shocked that I can hear Tyler's reply, let alone the fact he could have heard me.

"Why don't we just ask?" because it felt wrong, I didn't want a repeat of when I was seven. I didn't want to hurt mom and dad. I was scared to know, but one thing that I can't be in front of my little brother is scared.

"I don't know," I sighed, pinching the bridge of my noise, "it just feels wrong somehow…"

"Oh so, snooping into their stuff isn't wrong?" Tyler asks, putting an edge to his voice to let me know he's serious.

"Hey! " I protest, "I'm not the one that took the book."

"Well i don't want to read anymore!" he whines in a manner that would have made him blush with embarrassment if it ever happened in public, god forbid it ever happened in front of Cyndi. That would have practically killed him. Back to the subject, I really didn't want to read anymore either.

"Ok kid, you put it back." I said as I slid off the rock, ready to head back home and start dinner, it was already starting to get dark, and the weather didn't help the visibility.

"I got it, it's your turn!" he protested.

"Should have thought of that before you took it! It's not like I forced you to do get it!" i didn't force him, I just threatened to invite Cyndi over for dinner on a night when "uncle" Haymitch came over. Blackmail isn't force. Besides, he deserves it for telling Dad all about Fin, and then inviting Fin over to help in the bakery. Fin, I'll have to face him one day, just not today, there's something else I had to do now. Something I had been dreading to do since I first found the book. I had to ask mom about it.

A/N: Yo, sorry for the cliffieish ending. I know it sucks, and I'm really bad at updating, I will update ASAP, please vote on my poll of what fanfiction I should do next, I have two ideas that I REALLY like, but don't have time for both (I'll probably do so anyways but I would like the input to see if anyone has other suggestions) so thank you sooo much for reading, I apologize again for the really bad updating please review! And please check out my Maximum Ride songfic, it would mean a lot, and I will send you your very own Peeta if you review any of my stories! XD


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